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Goa, Saturday 12,February 2011
Davis’ self-defence plea was considered and keeping in view the witnesses and the forensic (reports), that has been rejected by the investigators. -- Lahore police chief
Qureshi dropped from Pakistan’s foreign ministry
SNAPSHOT Parents put up for auction in Pakistan ISLAMABAD: Five handicapped siblings, suffering from a degenerative disease, put up their old parents for auction in Pakistan’s Punjab province as the family had nothing to eat and had been starving for the past two days. The auction of the parents was organised outside the district coordination officer (DCO) office in Khanewal town, Express Tribune reported on Friday. The disabled brothers and sisters invited bids to sell their parents, saying that their family was starving and that their parents had volunteered to be sold if the money could pay for their treatment. Retired railways official Muhammad Sarwar’s five children - Tanveer, Badar, Safdar, Zaheer and Nadia have become disabled due to a genetic degenerative disorder. Sarwar had sold off his entire property, including furniture, to pay for his children’s treatment and were not able to afford the medical bills.
PTI ISLAMABAD, FEB 11 :Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who was known for his less-than friendly attitude towards India, is no longer the foreign minister of Pakistan as Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani reconstituted his cabinet today. A voluble leader, 54-yearold Qureshi, who headed the foreign ministry in the PPP government since March 2008, today refused to take oath as a cabinet minister after it became known that he was not going to get the foreign affairs portfolio. Qureshi was dropped from the foreign affairs portfolio shortly before India and Pakistan are to resume their stalled dialogue process. Offered Water and Power portfolio, the former foreign minister was apparently reluctant to join the government, PPP spokesperson Fauzia Wahab told PTI. A lawyer by profession, Qureshi was considered a hardliner because of his apparent proximity to the Army. At a press conference with External Affairs Minister
china activist beaten over video, says rights group BEIJING: A Chinese activist lawyer and his wife have been beaten by police and state security officials for making a secret video that shows their life under strict house arrest, a rights group said on Friday. China Human Rights Defenders said a reliable source told it that Chen Guangcheng and his wife, Yuan Weijing, have been blocked from going to a hospital after Tuesday’s beating, which was described as “not light” but not life-threatening. Chinese officials could not be reached for comment, and the group’s claims could not be independently verified. The US-based China Aid Association released a video on Thursday of Chen and Yuan talking about life under months of round-the-clock surveillance in their rural home after Chen’s release from prison last fall.
Davis charged with murder, US-Pak stand-off intensifies American gets 14 days judicial custody
Supporters of Pakistani religious party Jamat-e-Islami chant slogans during a rally against Raymond Allen Davis, a US consulate employee suspected in a shooting, in Karachi on Friday. PTI LAHORE/ISLAMABAD, FEB 11: The tense stand off between the US and Pakistan intensified today as the Lahore police charged American official Raymond Davis of “cold-blooded” murder, ignoring pressure from Washington for his immediate release. The tussle became murkier as an American channel reported that Obama’s National Security Advisor Tom Donilon threatened to “kick out” the Pakistan envoy Hussain Haqqani, if Islamabad failed to release Davis by today. But later, both Haqqani and a US embassy spokesperson in Pakistan termed the report as inaccurate. Davis, 36, who was arrested for shooting down and killing two Pakistanis, was remanded to a further 14 days of judicial custody by a court till the next hearing on February 25. Rejecting the self defence plea of Davis, Lahore police chief Aslam Tareen said they had framed murder charges against him after finding no proof to back his claim that he had shot and killed two men in self-defence. “His self-defence plea was considered and keeping in view the witnesses and the forensic (reports), that has been rejected by the investigators,” he told a press conference. The killing of the two men was an “intentional” and “cold blooded murder,” Tareen said.
courT baTTle Rejecting the self defence plea of Davis, Lahore police chief Aslam Tareen said they had framed murder charges against him after finding no proof to back his claim that he had shot and killed two men in self-defence. The stand-off between Pakistan and the US over Davis, who Washington says enjoys diplomatic immunity, has taken the already tense relationship between the two countries to a new low. The US has suspended all high-level contacts with Pakistan and reports have suggested they will not be resumed till Davis is freed. But, top Pakistani leaders have so far rebuffed US demands for Davis to be freed, saying the matter will be decided in court according to the country’s laws. US lawmakers have also warned that the matter could affect American civil and military aid to Pakistan running into billions of dollars. Meanwhile, officials in Lahore said police are expected to submit a ‘challan’ or chargesheet against Davis in court after the completion of his judicial remand. The ABC report earlier said that US NSA Donilon told Pakistani envoy Haqqani on Monday that the Obama administration will “kick him out of the US”, close consulates in Pakistan and cancel President Asif Ali Zardari’s upcoming visit to Washington if Davis is not released by Friday.
54-year-old Qureshi, who headed the foreign ministry in the PPP government since March 2008, today refused to take oath as a cabinet minister after it became known that he was not going to get the foreign affairs portfolio.
15 top Pak officials may lose jobs PTI
Qaeda committed to acquiring WMDs: US PTI
ISLAMABAD, FEB 11: Fifteen top Pakistani officials, including the investigative agency FIA’S chief and close aide of the President may lose their jobs with a high-level panel recommending the termination of their services. Establishment Division Secretary Abdur Rauf Chaudhry, appearing before a seven-judge Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, said FIA chief Wasim Ahmed and the Sindh Police chief were among the 15 officials whose termination had been recommended by a committee of the secretaries. Ahmed is considered a confidant of President Asif Ali Zardari and was made head of the FIA after being hired on contract after his retirement from government service. The committee of secretaries conducted a review of contractual employees holding senior official positions on the orders of the apex court.
WASHINGTON, FEB 11 : Pakistan-based al Qaeda’s senior leadership remained committed to acquiring weapons of mass destruction including nuclear weapons, a top Obama administration official said. In his testimony before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Michael Leiter, director of National Counterterrorism Centre said, “We assess that al Qaeda’s senior leadership in Pakistan remains committed to obtaining all types of weapons of mass destruction.” “But thanks to some outstanding and effective offensive action against al Qaeda senior leadership in Pakistan, we also assess that their ability to do so is greatly diminished since 9/11,” Leiter said in response to a question from Congressman Mike Rogers, chairman of the Committee. “So you would rate their intention as high to try to secure that?” Rogers asked. “Yes” answered Leiter. “I think the intent remains high, in particular in Pakistan and in Yemen,” Leiter said. Expressing concern over the current situation in Pakistan, Congressman Ben Chandler said, “Pakistan is one of the most dangerous places on the planet.” “You have got a state in Pakistan which has
enormous volatility and nuclear weapons. What can you tell us about the security of the nuclear weapons under the control of the state of Pakistan? Are we in decent shape there? And what needs to be done to make sure that those weapons are secure?” he said. “I think what I can say in public is that our assessment is that the nuclear weapons in Pakistan are secure. And that’s probably all we should say about that in public,” said James Clapper, director of National Intelligence. CIA director Leon Panetta said his greatest concern was to avoid another 9/11. “The reality is that our biggest concern about al Qaeda was that they could conduct 9/11-type attacks in this country. We have focused on that. I think as a result of the work that’s been done at going directly at them in the FATA, I think we’ve seriously undermined their ability to be able to conduct those kinds of attacks,” Panetta said. “Having said that, they are now resorting to other ways to come at this country. And those ways are through trying to inspire sleepers, to try to go after lone wolves, to use the Inspire magazine, to use Awlaki, who’s basically been urging people to do whatever they can to do something in a terroist way, someplace, somehow, somewhere,” he said.
S M Krishna in July last year, he equated Home Secretary G K Pillai's comments to those of JuD chief Hafiz Saeed. He also said that Krishna often got calls from India during the bilateral talks and left the room for consultations. For now, the foreign ministry will be looked after by Hina Rabbani Khar, who was minister of state for finance in the dissolved cabinet, sources said. The 34-year-old has been participating in discussions with the World Bank and the IMF for financial reforms in Pakistan and is familiar with western leaders. Qureshi stayed away from the swearing-in ceremony for Gilani's new cabinet after he was informed that he would not be reallocated the foreign affairs portfolio. PTV reported earlier that Qureshi would be among 23 ministers who would take oath, but he was not present when President Asif Ali Zardari administered the oath of office to 21 federal ministers and a minister of state at a ceremony in the presidency this afternoon.
Held under blasphemy law, man gets bail PTI LAHORE, FEB 11:A Pakistani court has granted bail to a man arrested under the controversial blasphemy law for allegedly defiling the Quran. Legal experts said this was the first instance in several years of a person accused of blasphemy being granted bail. Justice Anwarul Haq of the Lahore High Court yesterday issued an order stating that Shahid Hasan Sheikh, who was arrested for blasphemy, could be released on furnishing surety bonds worth Rs 200,000. Sheikh, a resident of Batapur, told the court through his counsel that he was implicated in a fake case by people belonging to a rival religious sect. The man who filed the FIR against Sheikh had acted at the behest of one Malik Iftikhar, the counsel said.
Assange has four love kids, says WikiLeaks defector
E
mbattled WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, fighting an extradition case over sexual misconduct, has at least “four love children” with mistresses across the world, according to leaked excerpts of a tell-all book by a WikiLeaks defector. Former WikiLeaks spokesman Daniel DomscheitBerg, who left the organisation amid tensions with Assange, has revealed in his forthcoming book that the 39-year old Assange used to “boast” about how many children he has fathered across the world. “Often I sat in large groups and listened to Julian boast about how many children he had fathered in various parts of the world. He seemed to enjoy the idea of lots and lots of Julians, one on every continent.” “Whether he took care of any of these alleged children, or whether they existed at all, was another question,” Domscheit-Berg writes in his book, an excerpt of which was leaked to gossip website Gawker. Last month, Domscheit-Berg launched a rival site
OpenLeaks. “From his bombastic OKCupid profile to his creepy love letters to a 19-year-old girl, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange’s has some strange romantic proclivities. Strangest of all is his apparent obsession with littering the world with offspring,” the report in Gawker said. According to leaked police documents on Assange’s ongoing rape and sexual molestation case, WikiLeaks volunteer and Swedish journalist Donald Bostrom has told investigators in Sweden that Assange had “at least” four children. Gawker said this was a number “independently confirmed” to it by a former WikiLeaks volunteer and a former friend of Assange. The youngest little Assange is a mere six months old, according to the former friend. The oldest, and the only one of Assange’s offspring previously reported, is 20-year-old Daniel Assange who lives in Melbourne, Australia. Assange fathered him in his teens with his thengirlfriend. Daniel however has not seen his father since 2007. Gawker said ages of the other two
children are unknown but both are in Australia. It is not known who the mothers of these children are. “The fixation on seeding the world with mini-leakers springs from a sense of inborn superiority,” Gawker quotes a source as saying. “He (Assange) feels obliged to spread his genes. In other words, he thinks he is so good that the world needs more of his kids.” Assange is currently fighting extradition in London. The WikiLeaks founder is wanted by Sweden, which is investigating charges of sexual-assault allegations against him. He is accused of sexual misconduct by two women he met during a visit to Stockholm last year. He denies any wrongdoing. The US government has also been trying to prosecute Assange for espionage after his whistleblower website released thousands of secret documents on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as a flood of State Department cables. No specific charges against him have been framed.